A Flowing Stream
by Kaah Reis
Summary: Everything was fine until the day Nick Fury made me go to Asgard. I loved everything in that place – the landscape, the colors, the food, the people. Everything… But then I met him. Post-Avengers - Loki/OC


**Hi, guys! My first fanfic about Loki, so I hope you like it. I do not have anyone who can review my stories before I post it, so, please, if you find any mistake let me know so I can correct it.**

**I own nothing besides Rhea.**

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**A Flowing Stream**

**Chapter One – One-way Trip**

A mess.

This was the result of the attack that happened in New York.

An enormous mess.

The Big Apple was busier than ever; all around the places it was possible to see buildings being reconstructed, alien bodies being removed from the streets and high-powered and unknown weapons being secretly gathered by S.H.I.E.L.D. It took days to dismember all Leviathans and a few more days to figure out what to do with the pieces; every now and then one could find parts of Chitauri scattered randomly around places in town. Not to mention the huge amount of historical buildings and monuments destroyed that would take centuries to be restored in every detail again.

But that wasn't the most important thing.

The most important _**thing**_ was that the number of deaths to the total was unknown and the psychological damage caused by the attack was irreparable. It wasn't simple for the people to forget what they had seen and they, certainly as hell, wouldn't come back to their lives as if nothing had happened.

The funny thing was that the main responsible for all this mess was not even on the planet anymore. Loki Laufeyson had been taken by his stepbrother soon as the war against the Aliens was over about a year ago. According to him, Loki was from Asgard and as such should be tried for his crimes in the place where he came from; and if the God of Thunder was the one saying it, then Nick Fury would not contradict him for sure.

And that was one of the things that made her furious about the whole subject.

Rhea huffed annoyed, having to switch sides of the sidewalk again when she saw a plaque of "Under Construction" in front of her. Even a good amount of coffee purchased at Starbucks wasn't enough to make her a little bit happier in that rainy day in New York, which was not unusual. In the last year, her mood wasn't one of the best and she knew that once she put her feet on the base/building of S.H.I.E.L.D. it would decline from ordinary cold to heartless killer (which, let's face it, it was what she was).

Rhea simply hadn't more patience for newbies anymore. And since several agents had been killed in the war against Mr. I'm-a-child-please-notice-me, the base was full of people not knowing what to do, which resulted in more work to be done for her.

She didn't mind to work, but she also needed vacation. Since when Rhea had started working for the top-secret agency, she couldn't remember when was the last time she had relaxed. Truth being told, she was working for S.H.I.E.L.D. for a very long time.

Rhea walked faster – the last thing she needed was to listen to Director Fury complaining that she was late. She turned the corner and spotted the base a few meters away from her.

The building of S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't something extraordinary and with unimaginable technologies for those who didn't pass the first floor. It was a large construction with several dark windows, thus avoiding the prying eyes of pedestrians who walked in the sidewalks. The ground had been designed to look like the entrance to an office of some important doctor or a large law firm; the walls were white with a pale marble floor; the only things in that place were two large lifts at the back of the room, they were behind a huge pillar with a round desk around it and inside that counter, were two "secretaries" on their computers, answering phone calls. The lobby had several plants and some black leather armchairs; any person who insisted on speaking with the "boss" would have to wait at that location until someone "responsible" appeared. There were also two "guards" dressed as a museum guards, they were responsible for security. The moment you put your feet inside the building, you'd be surrounded by special agents, then, by logical conclusion, none of these people were ordinary people; without mention that the whole room had an abnormal amount of hidden security cameras, so if anyone tried to break into the building, S.H.I.E.L.D would know and the place would be full of agents before someone could say, "Oops".

Rhea nodded to the two "secretaries" and the two "guards", the silence was so intense that she could hear clearly her high-heeled boots beating against the absurdly polished floor.

She walked straight to one of the elevators.

On the side of each one of them, there was a plaque of recognition technology that made the doors open, which only would happen if the person was permitted.

She put her left hand – the one not holding the cup of coffee – in the panel and waited for the machine to confirm that, indeed, she worked for the agency.

After listening to the robotic voice saying "Say X", she glared at the screen and waited for the laser to scan her.

Once the doors opened, Rhea quickly entered the compartment; if, by some miracle, someone could break into the base and open the elevator doors, it would close automatically after 10 seconds which wouldn't give time for the group of invaders to pass to the next floor.

After pressing the button for the desired floor, you had to do the same thing inside it, the elevator would move only if you had access to the place. S.H.I.E.L.D. worked by levels; the higher your level was, more floors you could access without difficulty. Now, if you were from lower levels, you only could access the upper levels with the permission of the Director Fury himself, something that did not happen very often.

Being a stupidly high level, Rhea didn't have problems to access any floor.

She was taken from her thoughts by a "Ding" announcing that she had stopped at the desired floor. Taking a deep breath, she stepped off the elevator with the worst possible expression.

It wasn't that Rhea was sulking with life or that she hated any living organism or something like that, it was just that scare the rookies (and frankly, the old agents too) amused her. She felt something extremely pleasant to see agents make way for her to pass, even if the hallway was packed and they had to squeeze against the wall. She wasn't in favor of global domination as many people in the agency thought; the truth was just that she and Natasha were in a competition to see who scared the largest number of people without saying a word, the loser would pay shawarma for all the Avengers (Thor included, so no one wanted to lose).

But nothing amused her more than to find out some gossip and rumor about her. People could be so creative. The best rumor she had heard, was about why she, being a member of the Avengers, had not fought in the attack at New York; some people said it was because she and Loki were working together to conquer the universe, others said she was passing information to him in the attack or even that the two were in love and that Rhea would be the queen when Loki won the war. All that was bullshit, of course. Rhea had never even seen Loki without being in the recordings made by S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Why are you smiling like a maniac?"

Rhea looked to the side and smirked. She was so distracted by her thoughts that she hadn't noticed the presence of the man beside her.

"Thinking about my next plan for world domination since my plot to partner with Laufeyson didn't work." She joked and then said menacingly, "Damn you, Avengers! When I shall put my hands on you all…"

Clint threw his head backward and laughed outrageously high.

"Wow," Rhea said playfully. "Take it easy, Clint."

She stopped when she saw the confusion that was in the building.

"What the hell is going on here today?" Rhea raised an eyebrow.

"Thor's back." Clint shrugged. "People like to see people from another world, I guess."

"That's because they don't spend much time with him like we do." She joked. "Give them an hour with Thor and they'll want to send him back to the place where he came from."

"And stay there..." Clint said with a deeper voice, imitating the thick accent of Thor, pointing to some corner, as if arguing with a dog.

This time it was Rhea that laughed out loud. She got the joke. The Avengers called him puppy, a Golden Retriever to be precise, always wanting to learn something new, excited and happy for any little thing; innocent as fuck.

"Anyway..." Clint said after Rhea stopped laughing. "I think they are up to something. You know, Thor and Fury. They're talking since Thor returned to Earth."

"Oh Gosh," Rhea sighed. "I don't know if I want to know what they're talking about."

"Nothing good, you bet." Said a third voice behind them.

"Good morning, Tasha." Rhea said.

"Morning." The redhead replied.

"It also can be about something ridiculous." Clint said uncertain.

"Like what?" Rhea raised an eyebrow.

"Well," He said looking at each side. "Remember when he tried to convince Fury to throw a big feast to celebrate the arrival of Spring?"

Rhea and Natasha laughed at the memory.

"When Fury said no, Thor said that that was blasphemy and we should be grateful for what we have and a feast would be perfect for it." Clint looked amused. "And then Fury said we thank what we have in Thanksgiving..."

"...and Thor wanted to make a Thanksgiving party." Rhea said, wiping tears from her eyes. "Which didn't happen because it wasn't Thanksgiving yet."

"And it took ages to explain to Thor that we have a day to celebrate the date." Clint continued.

The three laughed again.

"Well, I hope so." Rhea shrugged.

"By the way, where's your uniform?" Natasha asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm going to change right now before you start complaining about it." Rhea said sarcastically.

She temporarily said goodbye to her friends and went to the women's locker room.

xxx

After getting ready, Rhea returned to the company of Clint and Natasha. Since none of them were on a mission, they're expending energy on the training ground. Well, Clint and Natasha were; Rhea was sitting on the mat, watching her friends train with an open book of Norse mythology on her lap.

"That was cheating." Clint complained when he was thrown with full force on the mat only a few meters away from Rhea. "Rhea, tell this rogue redhead she could only bring me down because she stole. It was unfair."

"Said the hitman." The Russian said sarcastically.

"Just because I'm a hired assassin that doesn't mean I don't have principles." Clint muttered. "Am I right, Rhea?"

Rhea looked up from her book and smiled sarcastically.

"I think you're a just bad loser."

Natasha laughed.

"WHAT?" Clint shouted. "What is it? A plan against me?"

"Yes," Natasha replied sarcastically. "It is our great aim in life, Clint, piss you off."

Rhea laughed weakly when her friends began to argue and provoke each other.

"_Agent Miller, Director Fury wants to talk to you instantly on the main conference room."_ Agent Hill's voice sounded through the speakers of the building.

Rhea looked up when she hear her name ringing through the room. Clint and Natasha stopped arguing and looked at her, playfully.

"What did you do this time?" Natasha teased.

"Nothing." Rhea said quickly, but with the intention that the two agents realize that she was lying

"Rhe-a?" Clint raised an eyebrow and asked her as if dealing with a child who had been caught doing something wrong.

"I may have invaded NASA's system using S.H.I.E.L.D's programs." Rhea said innocently.

Clint and Natasha laughed.

"But I'm sure I didn't leave any trail that could be found. I…"

"_Miller, come here! __**NOW**__!"_ Nick Fury's voice sounded through the amplifiers.

"Alright…" Rhea said, playfully looking at the couple in front of her. "Maybe he found out."

xxx

"Okay…" Rhea said, coming into the room without looking at anyone specific. "If this is because of NASA, I swear there's no way they can find out that I've used the computers of S.H.I.E.L.D."

She finally looked up and met the gaze of Fury, looking surprised at her.

"Hn…" She smiled innocently. "Maybe this isn't about NASA."

"You broke into NASA?" Fury asked angrily.

"Nooo." She replied as if it was an absurd thing. "'Break into' means that I struggled to get into the system which didn't happen. So you can say that I _visited_ NASA." Rhea smiled proud of herself.

"MILLER! You have no idea how problematic it can be if..." Fury screamed and then took a deep breath trying to calm down. "This isn't about NASA."

"So you don't want to know anything about the Session 51?" She raised an eyebrow. "Because I'll tell you, I discovered some interesting things about a guy called Hellboy."

"I don't want to know about Session 51…" Fury said, trying to regain his patience.

"He's red. How cool is that?" Rhea interrupted.

"This has nothing to do with B.P.R.D., Miller." The director said.

"Oh..." She said, amused. "So you do know about Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense."

"Yes, Miller." Fury said, tired of this little game. "But what I want to talk to you don't have to do anything with it."

"I know." Rhea smiled mischievously. "I saw Thor in the corner. So I assume it has something to do with him."

"Hello, Lady Rhea." Thor smiled cheerfully at her. His blue Golden-Retriever-puppy eyes twinkled when he saw her looking at him.

"Rhea, Thor." She said, smiling serenely. "You can call me Rhea. Forget the 'Lady' thing."

"As you wish." He nodded.

Both found a place to sit at the conference table while Fury walked to his control panel.

"As you know, Loki is brother of Thor." Fury told Rhea, turning to press a button on the screen of his particular computer; quickly, the recorded video of Loki when he was captured appeared in a massive screen in front of the big table.

Loki wasn't doing much in the video. He was sitting, looking forward and smiling maliciously like a psychopath. Rhea couldn't help but find it an attractive scene; even being crazy, Loki was undoubtedly very handsome. _But those blue eyes_...

"Proceed." Rhea said, averting her thoughts from a dangerous path.

"He's imprisoned for a year now..." Fury continued.

"Everything is okay, I presume?" Rhea looked curiously at Thor.

"All is well." Thor replied, nodding positively. "He is in the dungeons with the most dangerous prisoners; he has a cell to himself so there are no misunderstandings. The cell is contained by magic and although he is not powerless, any magic that he does do not go beyond the walls."

"Any behavior problem?" She asked again, raising an eyebrow.

"No." Thor replied quickly. "He's awfully quiet. No guard complained about him in the last year."

"But you don't know for sure?" Rhea stated more than asked.

"Not with absolute certainty." The Asgardian replied, looking sad for a moment. "No one can visit him, neither mother nor I. Orders of father."

"That was until now." Fury said, interrupting their conversation. "Since the prisoner was taken back to where he came from, we are trying to negotiate and convince Odin to let one of our agents to go to Asgard and act like a psychologist/psychiatrist, so to speak. And after so long, he finally agreed to allow our presence in his kingdom."

"I don't know if I like the direction of this conversation." Rhea said uncertain, anticipating where it would lead her.

"We're here to talk about your new assignment, Agent Miller." Fury said, before she could say anything else and ignoring her last comment. "You're the agent designated for this mission."

"Why me?" She asked indignantly. "You know my temper, what makes you think I would be a good listener? I mean, it's likely that someone ends death after a minute of each other's presence."

"Exactly." The director said.

"What?" Rhea asked, confused.

"We don't want you to try to kill each other." Thor said quickly. "But if there someone who can put my brother in his place, that someone is you, Rhea. If we choose anyone else, I'm sure Loki would make him or her cry and run away from him as fast as someone could blink."

"Besides who better to go to Asgard than a specialist in linguistics and _'fascinated'_ by history?" Fury said sarcastically and emphasizing the _'fascinated'._

Fury knew many things about Rhea's life and she knew very well what he meant with _'fascinated'_. He could destroy her life if he wanted to, with just one little phrase; with a phone call, Rhea could say goodbye to her freedom and hello to laboratory experiments. And, honestly, she didn't fancy an one-way trip to prison.

"Fine." Rhea huffed. "I'll go to Asgard."


End file.
